Parliament's Justice select committee has released an interim report on the Arbitration Amendment Bill.

The committee says it has received the Ministry of Justice report on the bill and, to allow further feedback from submitters on the content of the report, it has decided to make an interim report with a copy of the ministry advice attached.

The bill is a Member's Bill and was introduced by National MP Andrew Bayly. It amends the Arbitration Act 1996 with the intention of resolving uncertainty regarding whether an arbitration clause in a trust deed would be binding under the Act, to make New Zealand consistent with other international legislative approaches to reversing the current rebuttable presumption of open proceedings, to limit the Court's scope to set aside or not recognise/enforce an arbitral award where procedural provisions conflict with the Act, and to ensure objections to an arbitral tribunal's jurisdiction are raised in a timely manner and cannot be heard or given effect to out of time.

The committee says it has received submissions from 10 submitters, with seven unconditionally supporting the bill.

The ministry report says the bill raises three substantive issues: its relationship with the Trusts Bill, whether the presumption of open justice should be reversed, and whether the Model Law should be amended.